Maharashtra offer to Patkar

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, SEP. 25. The Maharashtra Government has more or less decided to convert 73 forest villages into revenue villages to enable the persons displaced by the Sardar Sarovar project to secure land titles but Ms. Medha Patkar is unwilling to wait for the processes to be completed, which, according to time honoured traditions, would ``take some time.'' Ms. Patkar's indefinite fast entered its ninth day today.

These villages in Maharashtra, hit by backwaters of the inter- state project in Gujarat, have any number of persons who have been tilling forest land under ek-sali but have no official title which allows the displaced to get compensation but can access only ex-gratia help. According to the Maharashtra Government, the Centre has to consent to the conversion of areas into revenue villages.

Ms. Patkar has been camping here -- she is on fast and others are there in solidarity and forcing the Government to reckon with her presence -- demanding also that findings of a committee headed by Justice S. M. Dawood be acted upon since the waters of the Narmada rise every year and threaten the people who come under the sweep of the enlarging reservoir being built there. The Government says the Dawood report can be discussed only at the next cabinet meeting on October 3.

The Maharashtra administration, especially the Revenue and Relief and Rehabilitation departments, was thrown in a tizzy, seeking legal opinion as to whether the requirement of the Centre's consent can be sidestepped. They were citing to the Advocate General a precedent that way back in 1967, these villages were listed for conversion prior to the 1980 Conservation of Forest Act came into being but their surveys were incomplete till the Act came into force.

Sources told THE HINDU that of the 450 odd such villages which were listed, ``these 73 were also there'' and ``could we not go ahead and convert them?'' These villages, in 1992, were notified as revenue villages, but two years later, following the objection of the Law Department, were denotified since prior consent was not taken from the Union Government. It is not clear if in haste, a similar move could be made now but the attempts were being clearly made. Another view being taken is that any fooling around with the Forest Act would invite what one official seeking anonymity said was ``jail term'' and unless the State Cabinet decides and moves the Centre for explicit clearance, ``it should not be done. Ms. Patkar should instead sit in dharna or hold her fast in New Delhi to secure quick clearances'' but ``she would not. She would not be heeded there like she is here.'' Since it is forest land, no land titles can be conferred.

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